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Poster:	vapors	Date:	January 22, 2011 03:40:13am
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: The Gold was already mined

Financial aspects aside, I think we all profit here. We want to hear the music, and reading about the deal including the GD’s “vast archive of unreleased live concert recordings” makes me optimistic and excited. As you pointed out in another thread, Rhino has been busy, and even though some of us would like more early and less later era, the fan base is large and diverse, and the fact that they are digitizing, remastering, and marketing this IP (again ‘vast archive’) is all a very good portent of future possibilities.

"With Grateful Dead it all begins with the music and the fans," says Jimmy Edwards, Senior Vice President at Rhino. "They truly have one of the most knowledgeable and devoted followings in popular music. We are very excited about this opportunity to preserve and nurture this special relationship through releases and initiatives of the highest integrity."
http://www.rhinomedia.com/rzine/pressrelease.lasso?PRID=417

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Poster:	elbow1126	Date:	January 22, 2011 04:47:43am
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: The Gold was already mined

I completely agree with you about the fanbase being the beneficiaries of Rhino's activities. However I do not think the fanbase is really that large and I also think that is why they do things in a manner that we sometimes find peculiar. I mentioned in that other thread about the profit margin being better on CDs than on mp3 downloads through services like itunes. If you are marketing Justin Beiber or Lady Gaga then a small profit margin/unit is no big deal and you would trade that for the volume that you will sell through an outlet like the itunes music store. However if you are selling to a niche market then you aren't going to make money that way and need to maximize your profit/unit. I think we are niche market and Rhino has a lot of experience with this. I suspect Rhino also looked very carefully at how the Digital Download Series did and weren't impressed and that is why they don't do things like that even though from a consumer standpoint it seems to make sense.

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Poster:	vapors	Date:	January 22, 2011 05:59:55am
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: The Gold was already mined

I don’t have any facts, just an impression that the GD fan base is large, but I suppose the niche market is those of us that want more unreleased shows and/or better quality over what we already have, as opposed to those fans who are content or saturated with the large amount of offerings already available. I agree that Rhino must do a competent marketing analysis to determine the value of different approaches ( who wouldn’t) and make their decisions accordingly. It is too bad that the download series wasn’t successful enough to continue as I think there is an awesome potential there (for us fans anyhow.) The costs involved in preparing, hosting and processing must have proven to be greater than whatever potential profit could be realized. I think that has probably been discussed here before. Anyhow, always glad to read your thoughts on these matters.